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Just over a 18 months ago now, my wonderful brother, Will, (pictured with me, above) died - 10 days after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma. He was a 34 year old doctor (a paediatrician) months away from finishing his training to become a consultant. He had specialised in helping children with neurodisability, poignant given that he was soon to face this himself. He had been married for 3 years to Gemma, who I will be running alongside - and died tragically on the day of their wedding anniversary - June 21st, midsummer's day. Ollie, his gorgeous little boy, was only 18 months old when Will died. I would do anything to have given Will more time to see Ollie grow up, and for Ollie to have truly known his loving and doting dad. 

Will was so brave and underwent the gruelling open craniotomy procedure (brain surgery) awake, as his 6cm tumour was close to the speech centre in his brain, and they needed to do this to guide how much of his brain tissue was "safe" to remove without leaving a deficit. He had a really fantastic team around him, including a speech and language therapist who talked to him all the way through the 8 hour operation. We were so immensely relieved when he made it out of the operation with his speech and humble, witty and generous personality seemingly intact that we really were totally unprepared for what happened next. 2 days later he had a catastrophic bleed - and was pronounced brain dead the next morning. 

He had been put on a ventilator and tests before had shown that all his other organs were completely healthy, so Will’s last selfless act was to donate his organs for transplantation - another thing that makes me immensely proud of him. He was able to give the gift of life to at least 4 other people who were going through their own harrowing experiences. 

Receiving a diagnosis of glioblastoma is something I don’t think many of us can begin to imagine. Cancer is a truly terrifying word, but so many types of cancer now have relatively successful treatments, and you can at least hold onto some hope of cure. With glioblastoma, the figures make for extremely sobering reading. It is one of the most aggressive forms of the disease, affects many young amazing people, and research into understanding it and finding treatments is pitifully underfunded. Will knew as soon as he was given his diagnosis that his time was very limited - and this was totally heartbreaking for all of us to witness. 

I wish that it did not take personal experiences like this to trigger such a passion for helping such a worthy cause - but I have learnt far more about brain tumours and the need for Brain Tumour Research since my brother’s death than I ever knew before. I would really like to help raise awareness about the work of the charity, and raise money for Brain Tumour Research - so that it may one day be possible to prevent such unnecessary suffering and death from this horrible disease. The important work of this charity deserves a higher profile. It is only through painstaking research that breakthroughs in medicine are discovered.

I want to raise money to help fund this research by setting myself a true challenge - something that my brother would be proud of me for achieving. It's also very special that Gemma and I will be doing this together. Those of you who know me will know that I have never set foot in a gym and (although often have the right intentions) virtually never do any form of exercise. I know for my own health, if nothing else, that this has got to change. Building up my fitness to be able to run 26 miles is certainly not going to be easy, but I hope it may be the kickstart I need to get healthy as well.

I would be so grateful if you would like to donate to help Gemma (who has her own page on Virgin Money Giving), myself, and Brain Tumour Research reach our target.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.